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THE LATE EARL OF DERBY. 
BY the death of Frederick Arthur Stanley, K.G., G.C.B., 
G.C.Y.O., sixteenth Earl of Derby, the Royal Agricultural Society 
has lost one of its most active and generous supporters, and 
the agricultural community generally a sympathetic and kind 
friend. The late Lord Derby held many of the high offices of 
the State, including the Governor-Generalship of Canada, in 
which office he succeeded the present Marquis of Lansdowne 
in 1888. During his term of office, which extended to 1893, 
the Governor-General was brought into close association with 
the agriculture of Canada, and gained much experience there, 
which his Lordship found most serviceable on his succession 
to the title and to the vast family estates on the death of the 
fifteenth Earl in the year 1893. 
His estates in Lancashire and Cheshire extended to about 
70,000 acres, and in addition he owned some 9,000 or 10,000 
acres in the counties of Kent and Surrey. In the management 
of his property the late Lord Derby took the greatest personal 
interest, and he made a practice of attending the two rent 
audit dinners held at Knowsley annually at Christmas ; in fact 
he never once missed being present at these functions during the 
fifteen years of his possession. In addition to the Knowsley rent 
audit dinners, he also frequently attended those on the Fylde, 
Macclesfield, and East Lancashire estates. He was most liberal 
in the administration of his property, and his opinion was that 
his tenantry should have good and sufficient accommodation 
for the working of their holdings, but that when they had 
obtained this they should do their best to keep things in good 
order. It is acknowledged by all those who are acquainted 
with the estates that their condition was vastly improved 
during the late Earl’s possession, and his tenantry gratefully 
recognised the heavy expenditure he had incurred on their 
behalf. 
In 1895 Lord Derby was elected a Member of the Council 
of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, becoming 
subsequently in 1900 a Vice-President, and in 1901 a Trustee 
of the Society. He served on the Journal, Veterinary, and 
Dairy Committees, and frequently presided over the General 
Show Committee. 
On the occasion of the Society’s visit to Lancashire in 1897, 
Lord Derby took a very prominent part in that most successful 
Show, which was held at Manchester in the Diamond Jubilee 
year of Queen Victoria, under the Presidency of His Royal 
